Miami Is Becoming a Real Watch Destination

Miami Design District

Hublot — like other brands owned by LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bulgari, Tiffany & Company, and TAG Heuer — leases retail space in the Design District, a 30-acre mixed-use development that brands itself as a “creative neighborhood,” with the city’s highest concentration of luxury stores.

Since its development began in the 1990s, the Design District has come to be something of a horological center, including more than a dozen high-end watch brands. But then LVMH is a partner, through the L Catterton Real Estate investment arm, in the joint venture that owns and operates the district.

And it is LVMH’s involvement that is expected to spur some changes there in coming months. On Dec. 5, LVMH and the Design District signed a sustainability agreement to reduce the environmental impact of the company’s shops in the area, a self-imposed measure that includes limiting water use, shading the sidewalks and streets, and transitioning to green electricity, in line with LVMH’s overall sustainability goals.

“Clients do not ask if we are ‘carbon neutral’ when they walk into our stores, but one day they will,” Anish Melwani, the chairman and chief executive of LVMH Inc., the North American division of the luxury giant, said when the agreement was announced at the Moore, a historic Design District building. “We are doing this today to preserve our natural resources and the traditional ways we make our products.”

New Efforts

An addition to the city’s watch scene is scheduled June 12: its first auction held by a specialized watch auctioneer.

At least that is how the Swiss watch auction house Antiquorum, which recently opened an office in the Design District, has characterized the event. “There are no specialist watch auctioneers in Miami,” Romain Rea, the house’s chief executive, said, referring to auction houses like his that sell only watches. “We will be the only one; most of the competition is in New York.”